WHOA! What a weekend we had! It was just fantastic, I must say. Saturday Chase had his last CPA prep class and I decided to rally some friends/family to get Sophie's room painted as a way to surprise him. See, the thing is that during busy season Chase's "to do" list grows and grows and grows. It's really awful because he knows he has all of these things he needs to do but really what he WANTS (and deserves) to do is just chill out and take a nap! So I thought it would be a nice treat for him to NOT have to paint Sophie's room. And I was right! Chase was pretty dang happy to come home Saturday night and see that the room was painted, the curtains hemmed, the lamp was covered (okay, he wasn't going to hem curtains or mod podge a lampshade, but still...). As a bonus I got Garrett to mow the lawn, too! The only bummer was that we couldn't get the blinds or curtains hung - Chase is going to have to do it! Oh well... He's still happy.

That night I also got a babysitter and we went out to dinner. SO nice. Of course when we return Cecily had a great story for us. Apparently at some point Miles came out of his room and demanded to be taken to the potty. Cecily knew that Miles is not potty-trained but acquiesced anyway. However when she put him on the potty Miles didn't want to go. Instead he continued to yell "POTTY, POTTY, POTTY!" And then he took off running out the door and onto the deck where he promptly relieved his bladder.
WHAT?!
So, I can only guess which big brother is teaching him this behavior while they're playing outside. Cool.
The night ended with us "helping the Easter bunny," and finishing up our respective lessons for Sunday. As we were about to turn out the lights Chase went to look in on the boys. He came out looking really worried and said, "Anna, where is miles?!" He wasn't in his bed and Chase couldn't find him. We looked up in Cameron's bunk bed and there they were all curled up together. So sweet!

Sunday morning started bright and early with Miles and Sophie joining us in bed as usual. Cam joined us soon after, holding up his new Power Rangers coloring book from his Easter basket. But who did he attribute his goodies to? CECILY! "Mommy, look what Cecily left us!" So Cecily is now our most favoritest babysitter ever.
Eventually we did have to get out of bed to start getting ready for church. This is usually when the bedlam begins. And holiday or no holiday Sunday mornings are ALWAYS the same. I'm running around trying to make sure I have every possible thing we might need during those 3 hours. Snacks, blankies, binkie, coloring books, sippy cups, quiet toys, etc. It all goes in the big, red, shiny Superman bag that yours truly gets to schlep around. During all of this madness Chase suddenly remembers that he is supposed to be there early for choir practice. Oh, and can I stop my madness for a moment and help him go through the song a few times? Sure. Why the heck not. Sanity is so overrated.
So we FINALLY make it to church, and Chase's friend from work joins us. The poor, poor man. I don't think Chase adequately warned him what it's like to sit in a pew with us. It's something akin to swimming with sharks. You only want to do it if the sharks have full bellies, have had good naps and get their way. If they're the slightest bit hungry or tired or you do something to tick them off you're going to lose a limb. It's just bad. And that's what it was. Bad. We were up and down and in and out the whole time. I had to get up to lead the primary kids in their song (see story below), Chase had to get up to sing with the choir. And that required ME to get up and drag Miles and Sophie out because Miles was having a breakdown without daddy. Then I had to get up to go feed Sophie. Then I had to go back out in the hallway because I FORGOT Sophie's binkie and she was squawking...sigh. I ended up just sitting it out in the hallway for the remainder of the meeting. Thankfully Michelle and Erica provided me with good company.
Side Note:
So the primary kids sang in Sacrament meeting. I'm the chorister so I got up and was walking with Cameron to the front. I noticed right away that he was holding his Superman jacket in his hand. I said, "Cam, no. Let's leave this here." But I could tell instantly that if he was required to relinquish said jacket he was going to explode like Mount St. Helen's, circa 1980. So I quickly said, "Okay, you can HOLD it." And you know what? I honestly thought he would just hold it. Really, I did.
So I shepherd him onto the stand and get him in line with the other kids and I'm sitting in the front pew trying to get all the kids to look at me and smile so I don't notice what Cameron is doing. But the rest of the congregation saw, don't worry. No, it wasn't until halfway through the first verse of "Did Jesus Really Live Again" that I notice that Cameron has donned the Superman jacket and is now singing in character. Sweet. Needless to say we got lots of comments from our friends about how much they LOVED watching Cameron stand up there and get into Superhero mode.
Moving on...After church we go home and get the kids fed and put down for naps. I needed to make a potato casserole for Easter dinner and one of the ingredients is bacon. Personally, I hate cooking bacon. It always makes the house stink and it's just a big, greasy mess. I love to EAT bacon, but really hate to cook it. So I thought, "I'll just put it on the broiler pan and broil it! No messy pan and I can do it faster since my broiler pan is larger!" And the plan was working great until smoke started pouring out of my oven. Apparently the grease was splattering onto the broiler elements in the oven and burning, thus producing exorbitant amounts of acrid smoke. Not only that, but while trying to remove the pan from the oven a large amount of bacon grease splashed out of the pan (see story below), further smelling up my oven/kitchen. The smoke alarm had to be detached from the wall at some point and every window in the house had to be opened with fans running to de-smoke the house. It was awful.
Finally we made it to Easter dinner at Mom and Pop Rawlins' house. And nothin' says "Happy Easter" like Miles removing his poopy diaper and sitting on the white leather couches! FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC. So Miles was off to the tubbie - which he thought was a big reward for his ingenuity -and someone had to clean the poo off the couch. Whoever did that, thanks.
Anyway, we did have an egg hunt after dinner and it was so FUN! Cameron knew exactly what was about to happen and he was super giddy. Miles and Natalie were just wandering around, happy to be outside! Natalie kept opening her eggs whenever she would find one. Cameron was so annoyed that he couldn't find ALL the eggs - he had to leave some for Nat and Miles! Poor kid. I think next year I'm going to do an egg hunt just for him.

Later we had an egg hunt for the adults. Mom and Pop R (okay, just Mom) likes to put money in the eggs and hide them. This egg hunt is so funny to watch because they're money at stake. So silly.

Like all good things, though, the weekend did have to come to an end. We decided to leave just as the boys were coming down from their major sugar high. They were not happy about it, but crashed as soon as we got teeth brushed and jammies on.

Of course this morning I've been RECOVERING from the weekend. Why is it that I spend so much time on Saturday cleaning and then by Monday morning my house is WRECKED!? The one thing that absolutely had to be done was clean the oven. So I spent a few hours this morning cleaning it. I HATE cleaning the oven. I'm seriously considering just hiring someone to come clean it every 6 months. Anyone want a job? Rubber gloves included...